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A Southern laaii wiiu Aorthertt priacij[»ies. 




A Southern man with Northern principles. 



OUR FLAG. 



A POEM 



IN FOUR CANTOS 



BY 



T. H. UNDERWOOD. 



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NEW YORK: 

CARLETON, PUBLISHER, 413 5i?6>^i)F^F. 

M DCOO LXII. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by 

T . II . U N D E K W O D , 

In tlie Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United Stales for the Southern 
District of Xew York. 



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Davies & Kent, 

btereotypers and electkotvpers, 

188 William Street, iV^. Y. 



OUR FLAG 



CAKTO FIRST. 

I STOOD within a graveyard old and grim ; 

The lichen-bearded stones along the wall 
Are browned with age, and from each ragged rim 

A copious sweat exudes. Death hangs a pall 
Of sadness where the olden sleepers lie, 
And Gloom and Silence wander ever by. 

In that old burial-ground the dead are strewn, 
Like autumn leaves, promiscuous and profuse ; 

O'er broken head-stones grass is rankly grown, 

And weeds are there, and earth-plants, whose sole use 

May be to call Ambition back to earth 

With mundane homilies on modest worth. 



6 OUR FLAG. 

A lesson needed in this Southern clime, 
Where selfish pride, outgrowing ancient bounds, 

Assumes the red-heroic, black-sublime 

Of Treason ! Ah ! through all those waiting grounds 

Are voices murmuring curses on your name, 

Who mix their glory w^ith your present shame. 

The glory of a nation has its times, - ' 
Its changing aspects and its various modes. 

Just now we mingle our heroic rhymes 

With songs of treason and phrenetic odes ; 

With interludes of blare and party prate, 

Confusion, and a brotherhood of hate. 

Not far remote a Southern town is seen, 
But httle heeded in the world of rhyme ; 

She comes before us now with hands unclean, 
A mark of scorn for all the after time : 

The nursing mother (History wiU say) 

Of Tyranny and Treason in her day. 

O Richmond ! Richmond ! fallen to the dust 

Is all the glory of thy former pride. 
The stain is on thee of that sinful lust 

Which tears can not efface nor penance hide ; 
No partial history nor golden song 
Can veil thee from the memory of this wrong. 



OUR FLAG. 

Abounding in that graveyard are the urns 
Where rest the ashes of the honored dead, 

Of those whose eloquence forever burns — 
A light to marvel at — a fire to dread. 

Their theme was Freedom— 'twas a glorious theme— 

To which their slaves responded with a scream. 

Close on the margin of an open grave 
A gaunt and ghastly apparition stood ; 

No wilder image madness ever gave, 

No form more spectral haunts that gloomy wood ; 

His bony arms closed on his bony breast, 

His wayward head rolled in a wild unrest. 

His hair, uncombed, in matted masses hung, 

As river grasses cHng about a wreck ; 
His horrid beard, like vulture feathers, clung 

In wisps and knots about his corded neck. 
The signs of madness all his body bore. 
No ghastlier face a dead man ever wore. 

His tattered garments hung about his hips 
And round his heels, or flaunted on the air ; 

No moisture was there on his parched lips, 
That by the fever cracked and crusted were ; 

His breathing hard, his speaking wild and low, 

His features furrowed by some grievous woe. 



OUR FLAG. 

His arms unclosing, o'er the grave he leaned, 
As one communing Avith the dead beloAV. 

The fragments of the wand'ring speech I gleaned 
Were burdens of a grief I could not know. 

In words that mingled love, and hate, and dread, 

He wildly thus conversed above the dead — 

" Heaven's light is clouded on my soul ;' and so 

I walk as in the shadow of a wing 
Which hath a night of terror in it. ISTo ! 

Come not too near me, 3Iaster ; I may spring 
In my strong hate upon thy tyrant soul. 
And drag it hellward to its proper goal." 

His arms he wildly waved upon the air 
As one who guards himself against a foe ; 

He strove to fly, but something held him there ; 
He struggled fiercely, but he could not go. 

His bosom heaved with an oppressive weight — 

The stru2:2:le seemed a contest with his fate. 



*£•& 



A hand unseen had clutched him by the breast 
And upright held him, rigid, corpsely cold ; 

Far backward leaning, all his Vr^eight he pressed. 
Yet did not fall, nor could release the hold 

Of that relentless grasp which held him there ; 

In vain his efforts and in vain his prayci*. 



OUR FLAG. 9 

The force unseen relaxing in its hold 
Too suddenly, a frightful impulse gave, 

Which backward hurled him on the loosened mold, 
Supine and helpless, near the open grave. 

Then all was silent as the house of death — 

The very stillness seemed to hush its breath. 

I called the sexton, and with trembling haste 
We raised the madman from his earthy bed. 

He clasped the sufferer's knees, and I his waist, 
We bore him thus, as soldiers bear the dead, 

With slow and labored steps, across a rill. 

Up to the nearest mansion on the hill. 

We laid him gently on a snowy bed ; 

The linen shrank away instinctively 
Beneath its ghastly burden : shrank in dread 

From rags, and dirt, and blood, and mystery. 
Tenaciously the death-bed sheets retain 
The spot and odor of a dead man's stain. 

A fearful sight as ever met the eye 

Was that delirium-shattered wreck of man ; 

His facial bones projecting sharp and high ; 
His arms Avere dwindled to a meager span : 

Each joint and tendon coming to the light, 

Unfleshed and rigid, hor rifled the sight. 



10 



OUR FLAG. 

The ancient sexton, garrulously wise 

In all the lore of graveyards, every mode 

And asj^ect of the dead, showed no surprise ; 
To him the scene was but an episode, 

A trifle in the tragedy of life, 

AYhere Death is hero in the mortal strife : 



In all the ways of death was well informed — 

In sinapistic pharmacy was read ; 
And so he talked, and with his talking warmed ; 

He treated me to schedules of the dead. 
Whose gratitude was due for decent care 
And timely rest from noise of earth and air. 

" I never yet, in all the many years 

I've lived and labored for the honest dead 

(For I have worked for them, and shed some tears, 
Albeit the heart may, peradventure, wed 

Itself to use — may sometimes be remiss), 

I never buried such a corse as this. 



" I said a corse, but do not mean it such, 
Nor shall I stop the case to analyze. 

He's very still, quite cold — I grant as much ; 
But dead men do not plead so with their eyes. 

Um ! I have saved one person in my day 

Whose kindred had consigned her to the clay. 



OUR FLAG. 11 

"And I will tell you how it came about, 
If you have patience and the will to hear. 

A stormy night it was ; the lights were out ; 

The winds were shrieking, ghostly, w^ld, and drear, 

As through the vaults, w^ith fearful roar and rave, 

They called a specter from each sunken grave. 

" The Lord have mercy ! what a fearful night 
To walk among the tombs ! On pallid stones 

The ghosts were sitting, shrouded close in white, 
And all the air was filled with hollow moans. 

At twelve o'clock, an hour untimely late. 

There came three persons to the graveyard gate. 

" Three men w^ere' they, each muffled in a cloak, 
And every face behind a curtain masked. 

They shook with nervous dread, but neither spoke, 
Save one, whose husky voice an entrance asked ; 

Then quickly to a Gothic vault they bore 

A covered corse, and laid it at the door. 

" They carried it within that gloomy place ; 

The lamps were lighted round the dripping wall. 
The cloth removed, I saw the sweetest face 

That ever lay beneath a funeral pall ; 
A slumbering angel in her beauty lay. 
Wrapt in the purest mold of human clay. 



12 OUR FLAG. 

" The mystic silence of those muffled men 
Awoke suspicion, and I watched their way ; 

No evidence of doubt could mortal then 
Discern in me — I had my part to play. 

Around the coffin kneeled the maskers three, 

Then, rising slowly, left the dead with me. 

" I had a clear conviction of her fate — 
They'd brought her here to bury her alive ! 

I listened till I heard the closing gate 

And rattling carriage-wheels along the drive. 

My sense was sharp — I found the signs of life, 

And through the storm and darkness called my wife. 

" She came at once ; and to our cheerful room 
We bore the corse. We watched it through the night. 

When rosy morning came, thank God ! the bloom 
Of life returned, and reason's holy hght. 

More perfect loveliness, through clearer eyes, 

No mortal ever drew from out the skies !" 

The sexton ceased ; I saw his wandering eyes 

Most strangely wink; he quickly turned his liead. 

And then his face evinced a wild surprise 
To see the man sit upright on his bed ; 

And gazing at us, calmly and quite sane. 

With not a sign of madness or of pain ! 



OUR FLAG. 13 

Across his bed the nation's banner lay, 
With many l)rilliant, emblematic stars ; 

Much torn it was, and soiled with blood and clay. 
Was it a relic of illustrious wars ? 

I could not tell, nor did I seek to know — 

I wondered only Avhy he clutched it so. 

No word he uttered as he sat upright, 

But o'er the draggled ensign bowed his head. 

His breath was softer and his eyes less bright ; 
The skin was moist where late the fever fed. 

We silent sat, while he, but now so wild, 

Wept audibly, like some heart-broken child. 



CANTO SECOND. 

" Come closer, now, and hold that banner near ; 

You see a stain ! well, that is human blood ; 
Ay, human blood ! ISTow sit you down and hear 

How came it there. The tale will do some good, 
If it but teaches you to hate that rag — 
To call down curses on that lying flag. 

" Some fifteen years ago, or thereaway. 
Out West I lived, in that far better land 

Where luckless bondmen do not wear away 
Their Uves so quick beneath the tyrant's hand ; 

But even there I've heard such cries of pain 

As made the blood stand still in every vein. 

" Saint Louis was the city where I dwelt — 
Its wealth and wit are not unknown to fame — 

A Western town, and yet I've seen and felt 

Such crimes that I have learned to curse its name. 

Ah ! God forgive me ! I have wished His fire 

Or plague would blast it with unmeasured ire. 



OUTt FLAG. 15 

" They called me Yarney's Jeff (for Jefferson 
My mother christened me, I know not why ; 

Perhaps in mockery, for there was one 

You reverence now, who wrote a brilliant lie — 

A LIE self-evident, our masters say ; 

They hate him well, and, hating, we obey). 

" For Colonel Varney held me as his own. 
Though I was comely and as white as he ; 

My soul was his, my muscle, flesh, and bone — 
And with his mules and swine he counted me. 

'Twas said my face some hated secret told ; 

I could not help it — nature will be bold. 

" I have his nose— a marked, peculiar nose — 
I have the same proud curling of the lip ; 

His brilliant eye that like a diamond glows, 
His form, his face, except the faintest dip 

Of Afric tinge, which in my mother run, 

I am in all things Colonel Yarney's son. 

" My mother was his slave, an Octoroon ; 

Her eyes were blue, her face Caucasian fair. 
He bought her for his wife, at honey-moon, 

A proper gift, to watch her sleeping-chair. 
Her couch and bed, in petulance and pain — 
In short, to be the Hebe of her train. 



16 OUE FLAG. 

" Her name was Lucy (master called her Loo), 
A model woman, rounded in her flesh ; 

To maiden trust she ever had been true ; 
Thus all her beauty keeping pure and fresh. 

This Varney saw, and, gloating o'er her charms, 

Resolved to bring her to his lech'rous arms. 

*' My mistress was a sweet-laced, marble saint. 
As white as linen, passionless and cold ; 

And Yarney's love for her had grown so faint. 
He laid it by as something worn and old. 

Such gallant men their dark Delilahs keep. 

And in the lap of lust He down to sleep. 

" He forced my mother, helpless, to his room, 
And she became the thing she hated most ; 

Her beauty vanished, and the health and bloom 
Forsook her face — her only light was lost. 

To hide his shame when I, his son, was born, 

He treated her with cruelty and scorn. 

" My master sported epaulets and plume, 
He dangled at his thigh a jeweled sword ; 

And like a hero he could fret and fume. 
Take attitude, and mouth a martial word. 

The people called him Coloxel Yarney then, 

And he was honored much and praised of men. 



OUR FLAG. 17 

" There came a day, eventful, dreadful day ! 

It brought rejoicmg and a roll of drums. 
The streets were hung with banners floating gay ; 

The people shouted, ' Lo ! the hero comes ! 
Puissant Yarney ! none so great as he ! 
Let cannon speak the nation's jubilee !' 

" This hated flag I held that gala morn ; 

My gentle mistress placed it in my hand ; 
' Yourmaster will be pleased to see it borne 

So bravely by his Jeff" — 'tis very grand.' 
She said it cheerfully, but all the while 
The artless tears stood wond'ring at her smile. 

" Arranged were all the servants in a row, 
And each a flag, with martial roses drest 

They stood, like puppets well disposed for show, 
A star and badge and ribbon on each breast. 

Our saintly mistress looked as pure and pale 

As marble Isis, covered with her veil. 

" The street was crowded, and the pavement lined 
With crinoline and puffery and pride ; 

The wild huzzas grew louder on the wind. 
From cavalry and footmen, far and wide ; 

And, moving onward, high in martial fame, 

Great Colonel Yarney like a hero came. 



18 OUR FLAG. 

" Our mistress marked him bowing left and right ; 

And as he nearer came she paler grew — 
The pageantry grew dimmer on her sight ; 

Then all the vision faded from her view — 
And then she sat as still and white as death ; 
No witness gave of moving pulse or breath. 

" The long procession halted at the door, 
And Colonel Yarney, from his sudden throne, 

Descended proudly 'mid the clamorous roar, 
And blasts of triumph by the bugle blown. 

Then all the j^eople hailed him with a shout. 

And opened wide a passage in his route. 

" He mounted then the marble steps, in reach, 
But all unmindful of his fainting wife ; 

Then faced the crowd, and, in a swelling speech, 
Re-consecrated all his after-life 

To liberty, his country, and his God — 

A thousand lips the mockery applaud. 

" He stood within the wide and cheerless haU, 
With rattling sheath and war- boots iron heeled, 

With blood-red plume that swept the upper wall, 
As carnage sweeps ambition's battle-field ; 

With air sardonic marched into his room, 

Where he could storm at will, and fret and fume. 



OUR FLA.G. 19 

" *Here, Jeff, you rascal, draw these scoundrel boots! 

Here, Washington, unbuckle tliis damn'd sword ! 
Wine ! water ! quicker, you infernal coots ! 

I'll kill the first black wretch that thinks a word — 
Who dares exceed my wish, or render less — 
I'm not a marvel in my tenderness.' 

" * Here, Lucy ! ah, you Afric Lachesis ! 

What means this show of blacks, with flags and stars ? 
Who improvised a greeting such as this ? 

A he-goat regiment to welcome Mars !' 
Poor Lucy quailed beneath his angry eye ; 
And, fearing for her mistress, answered, ' I.' 

" * Begone ! you wench !' he shouted, fierce and high ; 

And Lucy, frightened, hurried from the room. 
' That wench conceals a secret in this lie — 

She can not brush me with a silver broom. 
There is a way to move my marble wife. 
And I will use it though it cost a life.' 

" Just then I saw him drop into his boot 
A bunch of keys — I thought by accident. 

Ah, God ! too soon I learned the martial brute 
A fearful purpose by that action meant ; 

A fiendish murder followed it that day, 

The thought of which has made me early gray. 



20 



OUR FLAG. 



" 'Twas four o'clock, and wild confusion reigned 
Through all the house — fierce oaths and angry ^v^ords 

Came down to us who to this brute were chained ; 
We knew the omen, and, like fettered birds, 

We fluttered in our cages, one and all ; 

ISTot knowing when or where the storm would fall. 

" The tyrant's voice rose boisterously high. 

And echoed hoarsely through the -hollow room ; 

' My keys ! you thief! now find them, or you die ! 
By God, I'll lash you till the crack of doom ! 

You leman hag, I'll teach you now that I 

Am not the victim of your foolish lie.' 

" I heard the furious stamping of a heel. 
And saw the brute, with unrelenting air. 

Assault his wife with force that made her reel, 
And clutch my mother rudely by the hair ; 

With violence he dragged her to the door, 

And thence his victim to the stable bore. 



" He striln her naked, bound her to a stall, 
Tied ropes about her hands, her feet, her hair. 

Then locked the door. I heard my mistress call : 
' Jeff! Jeff!' In haste I mounted up the stair, 

But sudden stopt — there rose the wildest cry 

That ever startled hell or shocked the sky. 



OUR FLAG. 21 

" More like a corpse than anything of Hfe, 
Save in her moanings and her face of fear, 

Prone on a pallet lay the shivering wife, 

Her nervous palm pressed vainly to her ear ; 

She vainly strove to stop the dreadful sound — 

It pierced her soul, as arrows pierce a wound. 

"'O master! master!— God! O God! O God! 

O ! O ! O ! — help me, missus ! — help me, do ! 
Do spare me, master ! mercy ! mercy ! God !' 

The fearful cries went stinging through and through 
Her frightened soul. She started from her bed. 
And, wdldly screaming, down the stairway fled. 

"In vain her hands assail the heavy door — 

Poor wasted hands, they had no power to save — • 

In vain did she with earnest lips im23lore 

Her brutal husband — vainly weej) and rave : 

' 'Twas I ! 'twas I ! Oh, kill me, too !' she cried ; 

' Come out and do a double homicide !' 



" A scornful laugh w^as all the hend replied ; 

And then the work went on with sterner will — 
With quicker hand the deadly lash he plied — 

The shrieks were changed to moans, then all was still. 
The fainting wdfe fell forward with a groan, 
And gashed her temple on the sill of stone. 



^2 OUR FLAG 



" Enough of this ; I leave the rest with God, 
Who then beheld and suffered this great sin. 

These crimson spots are my poor mother's hlood ; 
This was the winding sheet I wrapt her in, 

When, in the night, I stole her corpse away 

To give it rest within its house of clay. 

" We bore our mistress lifeless to her r9om, 
And, for a moment, weeping, round her stood ; 

From thence they took her to her peaceful tomb ; 
God rest her spirit — she was kind and good. 

No purer mortal ever walked the ground — 

No brighter spirit have the angels crowned. 

" The murder made me frantic, and my ways 
To him were troublesome. One course was left 

He sold me South — then came the crushing days 
Of crime and cruelty, which have bereft 

My soul of hope through years of weary time — 

The end was madness and a double crime. 



" With chains, and whips, and mockery oppressed, 
The soul and body whither — year by year. 

My Southern master gave me little rest ; 
My education was his staple sneer ; 

The doubtful color of my face, so white. 

Provoked liis rage, malevolence, and spite. 



CANTO THIRD. 

" 'TwAS yesterday," he said, " and yet to me 
A moment only seems the vanished day — 

A maniac dream of clouds and stormy sea — 
A sigh, a groan, and all has passed away ! 

No matter now ; regret will not avail ; 

The sum of life is but an infant's wail. 

*' A ghastly face, a form all gashed and grim — 
My murdered wife is pleading near me now ; 

I see her bleeding breast and mangled limb, 
Her lacerated neck and welted brow, 

And he who murdered her is at her side, 

A spectral form of cruelty and pride. 

" His smile is wicked, such as all men know 
In pictures of the father of all Kes. 

I met him yesterday ; his brows were low ; 
Two hissing snakes were couchant in his eyes. 

He said to me, ' You have been preaching, Cuff^ 

Your Abolition heresies and stuff. 



24 OUR FLAG. 

" ' Bah ! you are fed until you're grown too fat ; 

Your cloth is quite too fine — you are too proud ! 
Be careful, Jefi*; I'll have no more of that — 

Be satisfied, more circumspect, less loud ! 
The law is vigilant and rife in ways. 
And for your servile class has no delays ! 

" ' I give you Christian home, and clot^kes, and food ; 

What further kindness can you ask of me ? 
A base return is your ingratitude — 

A silly figment is your Liberty. 
No care have you, no debts, no factious duns ; 
Your life an easy, even tenure runs.' 

" I answered him : * In all the good you name 
Your sires were blest — in projoerty and limbs ; 

To Avives and children had unquestioned claim — 
Were masters of their wishes and their whims ; 

And yet they shed their blood right liberally 

For this same silly figment. Liberty ! 

*' ' Did English masters bind you with a chain, 
And buy and sell you in the market-place ? 

Or did they ship you, hopeless, o'er the main, 
Or brand their names upon your back and face. 

Or roast you while your bleeding wounds were fresh, 

Or tear, and saw, and gash your quivering flesh ? 



OUR FLAG. 25 

" ' Did tliey forbid you, under pain of death, 
To read the Bible and to worship God ? 

No ! all was free as sun and summer breath — 
In fancy only did you feel the rod. 

O Christ ! O God ! if those have called to Thee, 

How much more claim upon such hel]} have we ?' 

" He frowned upon me with his lips and eyes, 

In icy, haughty attitude of hate ; 
In every line his features said, ' Despise !* 

In every sneer a mocking devil sate ; 
And there he stood, a tyrant, self-elect, 
A scornful statue, rigidly erect. 

" He, frowning,, said, ' You tread forbidden ground ; 

The old Aj^ostles did not agitate ; 
They preached the gospel, and were never found 

As brawling intermeddlers in the state. 
Such doctrines only as are lawful teach. 
For this you're set apart by 2is to preach.' 

" And I replied : ' They did not agitate ? 

They surely did, but they were few and weak ; 
The legal harpies of the church and state 

Environed them, the lowly and the meek — 
Pursued them ever, with malignant ire. 
To loathsome caverns or through blood and fire. 



26 OUR FLAG. 

'' ' Yet they have come to rule the world anew, 
And, in their turn, oppress the weaker class. 

The old Apostles are renewed in you, 

And God has willed that it should come to pass. 

Appalling truth ! Beware ! for He is just — 

He holds our recomj)ense, and come it must !' 

*' Again his brow came downward like a cloud ; 

His muttered curses, under breath, I lieard ; 
I bore myself, perhaps, a little proud. 

I saw my master's deepest hate was stirred, 
For, sneering wickedly, he shook his head, 
And, with a sharp malignity, he said : 

" ' Accursed be Canaan ! on her rests the rod ! 

Her sons and daughters to the latest breath. 
This condemnation, thus announced by God, 

Is bondage, unconditional as death. 
Christ ratified it, and with Up and pen 
The Christian churches have replied, " Amen !" ' 

" I boldly answered : ' 'Tis a shameless fraud 
Upon the common sense of all the world ! 

A blasphemy — a crime against our God, 

Which Christian nations of the earth have hurled 

Back in your teeth — the argument of knaves 

Who have their interest in holding slaves ! 



OUR FLAG. 27 

" ' And even this great nation feels the crime 
That dims the luster of her gleaming stars — 

That clouds the sunshine of the fairest clime 
Of all the earth — and her avenging Mars 

Is rushing Southward with his battle-cry, 

And, in the onset. Slavery must die 

" ' E'en now the winds are vocal with the shout 
Of ransomed men, who leap as from the grave. 

Who weep and pray, and throw their arms about, 
And float on Freedom as upon a wave ! 

They kneel in rapture now, and kiss the earth. 

And shout hosannahs to their second birth.' 

" And then my master, softening, blandly said : 
' Your tongue is eloquent — so, so, I see ! 

Your wife is feeble, you are gently bred — 
To-day your wife, to-morrow you are free.' 

I knelt and blest him, lowly bent my head, 

And wept the sweetest tears I ever shed. 

" With buoyant step and happy heart I Avent 

To every duty master set for me. 
I worked and sang until the day was spent. 

And many times I dropt upon my knee, 
Imploring blessings on my master there, 
In earnest, truthful, and devoted prayer. 



28 OUR FLAG. 

I then went homeward, singing with great joy, 
' I shall be free ! my wife no more a slave ! 

With nothing now to mar our bliss, Namoi. 

Free ! free ! Now let your glorious banner wave ! 

For it is beautifully clear to me — 

No longer now a frightful mystery.' 

" Deprive the world of light for one long year. 
Let all men live despairingly in gloonl 

Till eyes grow useless, and all hearts grown sear 
Cry out for rest and riddance in the tomb ; 

Then open heaven, let the sweet light shine. 

And you would see a rapture such as mine. 

" ' O joy ! O bliss ! O light of that new day !' 
I laughed, I sang, I shouted ' Liberty !' 

I ran, I leapt, as light and young as May — 
That new sensation was no mystery, 

Near by my cabin waved that banner free ; 

I ran to call my darling out to see. 

" With eager haste I opened wide the door 

And called to her. She neither moved nor spoke. 

I called again ; I thumped upon the floor — 
No other sound upon the stillness broke. 

With quick impatience to her side I flew — 

Saw ! — sickened and appalled, I backward drew ! 



OUR FLAG. 29 

"Ah, God ! a chill of horror seized my joints! 

I stood stone-still, blood oozing from my lips — 
I dimly saw a hundred wiry points 

Play round my wife, on bloody, spectral whips, 
And each fell point ploAved deep into my heart 
With anguish such as no flesh-wounds impart. 

" O'er all her face I saw great ridges rise ; 

Like fiery snakes they coiled about her throat — 
They strangled me, they darted at my eyes. 

And with their fangs the burning eyeballs smote. 
Large, quivering welts were creeping, red and black, 
With bloody scales, along her naked back. 

" The deep-cut furrows of the steel-thong'd whips, 
Red-rimmed and raw and open to the air. 

Plowed through her bosom and along her hips, 
Unfleshed the sinews, and the bones laid bare. 

No word she uttered, neither curse nor prayer, 

Nor wept, nor moaned, nor seemed to heed me there. 

" Then through my brain, with hot, impatient heels. 
Trooped the damned brotherhood of tyranny ! 

I heard blasphemous shouts and laughter peals 
In mockery of Freedom. Sneeringly 

The scoffers taunted me with chain and rod, 

And bade me call upon the Negro's God ! 



30 OUR FLAG. 

" In trembling eagerness I drew a stool 

Close to my dying wife, some water brought 

To bathe her bleeding wounds, and strove to cool 
The deadly fever that the whij)S had wrought. 

But all my efforts and my tears were vain 

To soothe the body's or the spirit's pain. 

" She suffered much, but did not suffer long — 

The murd'rous hands had done their work too well ; 

The thirsty lash, with sharp, steel-pointed thong, 
Too skillfully had opened that deep cell 

Where Life, imprisoned, waits the coming time, 

Nor asks who knocks — disease, or age, or crime. 

" Her face was lovely as she turned to me. 
The light of heaven beaming in her eye ; 

She faintly said, 'Rejoice, for I am free!' 
Her life went out. Oh ! do not ask me why 

I shouted ' Joy !' I felt sublimely brave, 

For she I clasj^ed was mine, and no man's slave. 

" And thus my master kept his word with me — 
His fiendish promise given yesterday — 

' Your wife is feeble, I will set her free ;' 
And mine, of course, will come without delay. 

I know not how, nor care I to inquire — 

Enough ! 'tis welcome, be it rope or fire. 



OUR FLAG. 31 

" A bruised corse now lay upon my bed, 
In bloody garments, torn of brutal hands. 

More beautiful to me my mangled dead 
Than in the morning of our nuptial bands. 

For now my darling in her slumber lay 

As royally as lies the noblest clay. 

" Not far remote, a tall and branchless tree, 
In brave defiance wagg'd its haughty head, 

And on its summit, floating far and free. 

Your nation's ensign to the breeze was spread ; 

The emblem of a covenant with hell. 

Across my door its hateful shadow fell. 

" The blessed privilege is ours to dwell 

Beneath its shade, to count our welts and scars, 

To have you cram us in the throat of hell 
With songs of freedom and a show of stars. 

Hypocrisy ! legitimate of crime. 

Thy parent bred thee in this Southern clime. 

" 'Twas late at night, when all the world was still, 
Among the buried ' whites' I dug her grave ; 

I made a box — the best my awkward skill 
Could furnish her, for I was but a slave. 

The cofiin first, and then my wife, I bore 

To that rude grave, and laid her at its door. . 



32 OUR FLAG. 

" A long, long hour I wept above her head — 
I could not, would not give her to the tomb ; 

I talked with her as though she were not dead, 
Forgetting time, and loneliness, and gloom. 

I talked to her of vengeance, and it seemed 

She answered me ! Alas ! my spirit dreamed ! 

" I said ' good-bye,' and laid her in her bed, 
With rapid hands filled in the rattling clod ; 

I spread a quilt of turf above her head. 

Then kissed the grave and left her with her God. 

Then all the earth was desolate to me, 

I helj^less lay as on a shoreless sea. 

" Some demon led me to my hut again — 
His hand of fire illumined all the way ; 

The light, intensive, burned into my brain. 
And made the darkness Hghter than the day. 

Mysterious lips, articulate and clear. 

Came round me, whisp'ring ' Vengeance !' in my ear. 

" A heavy knife, once used for cutting cane, 
Lay in my cupboard, still and waitingly ; 

I called to it, nor did I call in vain — 

It answered sharply, ' I am here for thee !* 

So we together, confident of right. 

Went on a mission in that moonless niglit. 



OUR FLAG. 33 

" I found the overseer, debauched with wine, 

Serenely sleej^ing in his lecherous bed, 
And in his arms a negro concubine, 

Whose breast, perforce, sustained his tyrant head. 
The knife said, ' Die ?' I answered, *■ Yes !' He died, 
N'or stirred the woman sleeping at his side. 

" The next, my master, he who planned the deed — 
I found him drinking with a neighbor-friend ; 

I watched him late, of all his ways took heed. 
For well I knew his revelry would end 

In drunkenness, and, reckless of the night. 

He'd stagger home with neither guide nor light. 

" I saw him coming, met him at the gate. 

But imder cover hid myself away. 
I followed him remorselessly as Fate ; 

He reached a wood that on his journey lay — 
There by the throat I held him to the ground, 
And through his heart I made a ghastly wound. 

" Then I returned to that old burial-place, 
And laid me down upon my darling's grave. 

I moaned, and wept, and fell upon my face ; 
I called her name — the tomb no answer gave. 

A maniac dream came o'er my spirit then — 

A dream of hounds and hard, relentless men. 



34 OUR FLAG. 

" They came, with gun, and rope, and w])!]), and chain. 

To capture me, and I in terror fled ! 
Long hours I fled — they seemed a year of pain — 

Around and round that waste-field of the dead. 
Each sunken grave a pool of carnage seemed. 
And from the head-stones blood in torrents streamed. 

" They grappled me, those spectral men and hounds, 
With whips and teeth they tore my flesh away ; 

My feverish ears were filled with horrid sounds, 
And all the night was luminous as day. 

The ghastly people of the graves came out. 

And mocked, and jeered, and shufiied me about. 

" I heard my wife, imprison'd in her cell. 

Cry out for help ! O ! then a demon's might 

Strung every sinew, all the fires of hell 

Flashed through my blood, and till the morning light, 

With rapid hands, I tore the earth away, 

In haste to dig her from the smothering clay. 



" But round me closed the unrelenting men ; 

They grasped me by the breast and by the throat ; 
They held me upright for a moment, then 

With heavy hands my throbbing temples smote. 
The rest was darkness. I awaken here, 
My madness over and my reason clear. 



OUR FLAG. 35 

" I know not why this flag I still retain, 
But well I know it haunts me to my doom ; 

In all that night of horror and of pain 

I dragged the hated banner through the gloom ; 

The curse pursues me with a demon-spell, 

As devils haunt a guilty soul through hell ! 

" So much of me ; and now of others hear 

The frightful secret of that lady's life. 
Revealed this morning, fell upon my ear 

Appallingly. 'Tis well my bloody knife 
Was her avenging angel ere I knew 
How deep in sin were steeped the knaves it slew. 

" Of those three men the principals were two — 
My master and his scoundrel overseer — 

Myself the third. I thought their statements true, 
Believed her dead, and wept above her bier. 

I mourned for her, she was so young and fair ; 

Much wronged she was, as Southern women are. 

" Her death was sudden, and her large estate 
Became my master's ; here the secret lies. 

A reckless man he was, defying fate. 

And held ' the means the purpose justifies' — 

A villain maxim which your laws advise. 

Which rascals practice, honest men despise." 



36 OUK FLAG. 

He sudden ceased, for on the winds without 

A, sound of voices broke upon the ear. 
Below the window rose a savao^e shout — 

A clamor loud, tumultuous, and near, 
And then the tramping of a thousand feet 
Awoke the echoes aU along the street. 

The mob was there, and clamorous for blood ; 

A storm of angry curses swej^t the stair ; 
The rabble, pouring inward like a flood'. 

Rushed thro' the hall-Avay, screaming, " He is there !" 
They dashed the door and swarmed into the room, 
And dragged the helpless victim to his doom. 

They tossed him from the window to the street — 

He fell among the rioters below, 
Who caught him up and set him on his feet, 

And hustled him along, with many a blow, 
Through lanes of mockers, armed with whips and brands ; 
He fell, was dragged, or crawled upon his hands. 



CANTO FOURTH. 

■Ring out, O bells ! the N'ation's Sabbath-day ! 

The glorious Fourth ! Ye people, clap your hands ! 
Hang up your banners ! (hide the chams away ;) 

Let "Freedom" sound o'er all these goodly lands! 
What matter if our gallant ensign waves 
Above the fetters of four million slaves ! 

Drums, beat your rataplans ! shrill-screaming fife, 

Shriek " Hail Columbia" with relentless air ! 
Let shouts and bonfires mix in friendly strife 

With anthems loud and patriotic prayer. 
Hoarse-throated cannon call unto the sea ! 
Four million slaves may answer "jubilee." 

Our nation's ensign bravely cuts the sky — 
Its stars are flashing from their lofty height ! 

Down, busy devil— your suggestive lie, 
Expediency will cover from the sight. 

Hint not of " slaves," but shout the " glorious cause," 

The " Constitution !" " Declaration !" " Laws !" 



38 OUR FLAG. 

Ha ! here is one who in his fetters stands — 
The truth will out — he stand eth here a slave ; 

Strong ropes are knotted on his neck and hands ; 
'Tis said he dies the death that knows no grave- 

The death of deaths — appalling death of fire ! 

His feet are planted on his funeral pyre. 

The staff that lifts our banner to the sky- 
Is now his stake — his arms are pinioned there, 

Above his head, and painfuUy too high — • 
(The scorners say, " an attitude of prayer.") 

Chains round the staff and round his body twine, 

And to the " sacred pole" his limbs confine. 

Here are three men, whose manhood is unknown 
In Heaven's court, three men of vulgar speech, 

And faces hard, by evil passions grown 

To vulpine hideousness. They're holding each 

A pine-wood torch ; in readiness they stand 

To vindicate the honor of their land ! 



The ruffian mob in thousands gather round — 

The wolfish pack who dragged him through the street. 

They torture him with many a grievous wound — 
His body flay, and burn his hands and feet. 

Sublimely silent, he awaits his death 

With brow serene and even-tenured breath. 



OUR FLAG. 39 

A " man of God" (the blasphemy I write 
To show what brute-depravity has done 

To sacred things), in ministerial white, 

Is standing here. How ghb his tongue does run 

With libels on his country and his time ! 

He calls on God to sanctify this crime ! 

Repeats the standard falsehoods of his class ; 

Is flush in Bible saws and legal lore ; 
Is rich in sophistry of sounding brass, 

In reasons blatant. "With a pious roar 
He deals anathemas on seed of Ham, 
And curses Canaan with an unctuous damn. 



This priest of Baal by the victim stands. 
Parades his learning and his lust as well. 

In holy horror, and with lifted hands, 
Consigns all Abolitionists to hell — 

Belabors Freedom with the Holy Writ, 

Then goes his way pedantic of his wit. 

The torchmen then apply their ready match. 
And soon the blaze assails the victim's feet. 

Wild laughter rises, as the faggots catch. 
In approbation. From each lane and street 

The human tide rolls onward in its ire 

To swell the horrid carnival of fire. 



40 OUE FLAG. 

The pitchy pme the native instinct shows 

For negro flesh to feed its appetite. 
In flaming fury now it leaps and glows, 

And closing round him shuts him from the sight. 
A laugh of triumph is the only sound 
That gives report of him to those around. 

Right over this baptismal font of fire 
Most haughtily the nation's colors ^;ave ! 

The shoutings of the mob reach high — ^but higher 
The upward-leaping laughter of the slave — 

A laugh of joy ! the soul's loud jubilee, 

As it goes up, through flames, to Heaven, feee ! 

Now upward springing from its human feast. 
The unabating, angry blaze assaults 

The towering staff, and like a growhng beast 
Climbs up the wood and on the banner vaults ; 

Its fiery fangs the shiv'ring ensign clasp 

And crisp and curl it in their envious grasp ! 

They clutch it close, and hold it shriv'ling there ; 

They fiercely pluck each glittering star away ! 
Ah, God ! a flag of fire floats on the air, 

Grows red^ then hlach^ and parting from its stay, 
An instant waves a pirate rag, and, lo ! 
It falls to ashes on the mob below ! 



OUE FLAG. 41 

'Tis emblematic of a nation's thrall, 

And of the doom that His good time will bide ; 
In blood and fire shall her red fetters fall, 

And she arise, redeemed and purified. 
The conqueruig Right will leave to after time 
The giant Cindek of a giant Ceime. 



i^^'^nn, 




*S^ y 



